Architects to rework condo design

Developers expected to resubmit proposal to village board on Monday

The development group working to build a five-story luxury condo building at Chicago and Maple is meeting with a group of architects to rework its design, the group announced Wednesday.

It will be Altierra Group's third shot at putting together a palatable design for the proposed 10-unit condo building to be located at 1133 Chicago. The proposal was approved last month by the Village Plan Commission, following a rework of the original design.

The proposal went before the village board for consideration Monday but faced strong criticism from Garret Eakin and other Oak Park architects. Eakin expressed initial concerns about the original design in his monthly Wednesday Journal architecture column.

Village President Anan Abu-Taleb suggested at the meeting that Altierra bring Eakin and other architects into the mix to rework the design.

Altierra issued a press release announcing that the design session will also include Tom Bassett-Dilley, president of Tom Bassett-Dilley Architects, and Jim Lencioni, president of Aria Group Architects. Both are from Oak Park.

"In order to fulfill our vision of a building that the community can be proud of, this peer review will generate input from local architects whose work our development team respects and admires," Paul Zimmermann, principal of Altierra Group, said in the news release.

Altierra architect John Schiess said in the news release that the work session aims to present "a more aesthetically pleasing and architecturally interesting façade design to the board."

The new design is expected to be presented to the village board at Monday's meeting, Schiess said.

Did the WJ jump the gun by putting an ad on the front page of this week's edition announcing that the project was accepting applications for purchasing the units in this place? Will one of the variances that need to be granted for this project include reducing the parking requirements for the dog-day-care business next door to the site?

We'll See

Posted: June 12th, 2014 4:52 PM

How many of the architects will get paid on this collaboration? Mr Schiess didnt have a a very good outcome in FP at Elite Tire. Many work overs, including electrical, and roof issues. They also had to re pour the entire front sidewalk.